Mobile accessories company, Padacs, is now shipping Fortress, a protective screen for iPhone 4/4S and iPad.The Fortress is both shock-absorbent and scratch-proof, with the ability to screen protector gouges from metals, such as nails, bangs from heavy blunt objects, and drops.
In a demonstration video, we observed it being banged by a hammer, nail, brick, and coffee mug, and saw no visible marks once the cover was removed – of course, the cover itself was ruined.The Fortress is made of four layers. Shock absorptive cushioning layer and dispersive cushioning layer for a double cushion against external shocks, followed by a scratch resistant layer which overcomes the problems of excessive elasticity, and a reposition-able silicon adhesive layer for re-attaching and removing bubbles.
Additionally, the solution is made for simple application, eliminating air bubbles that occur with regular covers, and provides a non-slip grip. It does not affect the touch-sensitivity of iPhone accessories and accessories for iPad.The Fortress pack for the iPhone 4/4S comes with two films for the front, and one for the back of the device, and the iPad2/new iPad version comes with one film to protect the screen. They are available for $49.95 and $59.95 respectively.The Padacs Fortress is available through the PCRange reseller channel or Padac’s website.

Microsoft spent a big chunk of MWC today telling everyone about Windows 8 and if you’re the coding type, the news gets even better. If invited, you’ll be expecting something nice in the mail to arrive from Redmond very shortly. It’s sending out test accessories for iPad suppliers powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 that includes the beefy LTE, camera and sensor gear we played with in our hands-on. It’s intended to give developers a head-start in building and refining Metro-style apps ahead of the operating system’s big debut. You can check out the consumer preview of what was shown today here and if you’d like to know more, head on past the break for a sprinkling of PR.
Update: It’s not just Qualcomm giving away ARM silicon for free, looks like NVIDIA will be distributing Windows 8 machines powered by its Tegra 3 SoC too. PR’s after the break.

Looking for a little more consistent UI experience with your Android devices? Google is looking to make that happen as the folks in Mountain View has revealed that the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich OS will be the first Android software to institute design standards for developers. Android Design is a online repository for the UI guidelines and accessories for iPad suppliers for version 4.0, which we learned would unify smartphones and tablets back at Google I/O. This set of information should make things all neat and tidy for ICS devices, keeping user interface characteristics a bit more cohesive from app to app. Here, devs will find all the basic info and elements that are native to platform in order to make the best applications possible for the OS. Mr. Duarte warns that if you choose to not follow the style guide, your software will stand out — and not in a good way. He also quipped that these are indeed guidelines, not mandates. And that they will gain value as more folks adopt them. Yeah, we know… the competition from Cupertino has been doing this for a while now, but a bit more structure in the Android universe certainly won’t draw any complaints from us.

What’s this? If this is true, it looks like one of the jilted partners in the Sony Ericsson split is doing all it can to ruin the nice surprises planned for next month’s MWC. An image has appeared at Xperia Blog that purports to be of the ST25i Kumquat, which, if you’ve been paying attention is the cheapest of the three phones due in April listed on the leaked roadmap from a few days ago. The design language matches the Nozomi and the Xperia S we played with at CES, but the accessories for iPad suppliers are clearly bigger: pointing us in the direction of this having a cheaper display (with a worse resolution) than its brothers. Don’t let that Sony Ericsson logo fool you either, the company’s producing versions that bear both branding, at least for this set of releases. We’re off to grab a microscope and see if we can’t glean any more facts from the snap.

When purchasing a tablet PC, you should factor in the cost of the various Apple accessories you will also need. You can’t simply buy a tablet PC, carry it with you everywhere, and expect it not to get scratched or damaged, for example. Additionally, you’ll probably want it to be a bit more functional than the default “out of the box” status. That’s where the following accessories for your tablet computer will come in handy.
Tablet PCs aren’t cheap so spend the extra money for a case to protect it. The number one thing to guard against is scratches. With the whole thing basically being one big screen, you don’t want to end up with scratches all over it, do you? Tossing your sleek new tablet in your bag with your keys, pens, loose change and whatever else is a sure-fire way to destroy your screen in no time.
You can buy cheap cases for under 10 bucks. But why would you when you’ve just shelled out a couple of hundred for your tablet? Most cases are between $20 and $50. Spend the extra money. There are plenty of stylish leather cases and many of them fold back to work as a kind of stand (ideal for watching movies!) There are even waterproof cases, but I’m not sure I’ll be taking mine in the pool or the bath anytime soon, personally.
Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of tablet pcs is not being able to type very easily. Yes, there’s a keyboard that comes up on the screen with all the accessories for iPad, but you don’t want to be doing an extended amount of typing with it. The portability of a tablet is fantastic, but if you’re going to be typing a lot, it might be worth investing in a portable external keyboard.
Make sure the tablet you’re considering buying is configured to accept an external keyboard dock. If not, you might like to review your options again. If so, you should be able to purchase one fairly inexpensively. Some models may even be compatible with a standard wireless keyboard. Check with the manufacturer.This varies quite a lot across the different models of tablet PCs. Some make it very easy to transfer your photos using USB or some other standard technology whereas others require the purchase of additional accessories. As with the external keyboard, make sure you are clear on whether you need to buy any extras if you plan to take a lot of pictures with your tablet (or need to add pictures to your tablet).